Metroid X
by ShadowofKuchiki
Summary: Samus is forced to team up with a mysterious guy from her past. But when a mysterious new virus called DNAX enters her system, can the two both survive it, let alone each other?


Name: Samus Aran

**Metroid X: Mutation**

Name: Samus Aran

Age: Late twenties

Gender: Female

Position: Bounty Hunter

Home planet: Unknown

Weapons: Mech suit, right arm energy cannon

General wear: Usually Mech Suit while on a job, but wears Zero Suit (form fitting blue suit, much less bulky than Mech) in free time

Hair: Blonde, mid back length, usually tied up in pony tail

Eyes: Blue

Background: Has been a bounty hunter for many years, many hours of experience under her belt, generally hangs around her main employers', the Galactic Federation, base.

Name: Aurel Fell

Age: 29

Gender: Male

Position: Mercenary

Home planet: Unknown

Weapons: A dark Crimson and Black Mech Suit with hints of glowing orange.

General wear: Normal clothing when not on the job.

Hair: Dirty blonde

Eyes: Ocean green with a hint of yellow

Background: Has been a Mercenary most of his life, also a criminal in some places but does most of his work from anyone who pays him.

G.F.S. _Freedom_; Bridge

Samus, dressed in her informal, slick, form fitting blue Zero Suit, stood at the leading edge of the nearly abandoned bridge aboard the G.F.S. Freedom, one of the many Capital class flagships of the Galactic Federation. She leaned forward slightly with both hands on the safety rail, gazing out at the stars lazily moving outside of the viewport in front of her, daydreaming. She had just returned from Salmaria, a planet that had been inhabited by Metroids, the species hell-bent on sucking the energy from every living thing in the universe, barely making it out alive prior to the Federation deciding to blow it up from the core, saving trillions, but sacrificing millions. She shook her head free of the guiltiness that she had had a part in, and rubbed her eyes, sore from watching the radar on her own ship for hours before. I need sleep… She mentally moaned, removing her hand a few seconds later, standing straight.

"Samus!" A female voice cried from across the bridge, up on the raised platform, and Samus turned her back on the viewport to face her. She was running down the stairs from the higher plane, shoulder-length brown hair trailing from her neck and head, the rest of her clad in a suit similar to Samus' own Zero Suit, but was colored the dull Federation green. "_There_ you are…" She breathed, gasping from her jaunt across the colossal flagship.

"Need something?" Samus asked, crossing her arms with a grin. "Like a workout buddy?"

"_Very_… funny…" The girl muttered, glaring softly at Samus before standing straight, taking a large breath. "Okay… The General would like to see you on the deck, if you would. He's got another mission for you. And this one's…" She moved up closer to Samus, elbowing her lightly in the ribs. "_Special_."

"Chloe, get out of here, will you?" Samus joked, pushing her lightly away. "What could be more _special_ than killing every living thing in the universe someone's willing to pay you for?"

"You'll go though, right?"

"Of course I will." Samus said, cracking her neck on either side. "These guys don't have anyone better. Trust me, I know from experience…"

"Between you and me," Chloe whispered in her ear. "I don't know about your partner this time… He's a new one around here. Says he comes from Ti'kek."

_Ti'kek?_ Samus thought suspiciously, watching Chloe as she left in a hurry the other way, out a different door than the one she had entered by. _Isn't that one of the __**Space Pirates'**__ territorial planets? _She shook off the thought as she ascended the stairs to the higher platform and entered the adjoining hallway, trying to picture the 'partner' the Federation had drug in from the darkest corner of the galaxy.

Samus walked slowly down the hallway leading to the deck, but before entering, she took a detour down an adjoining hallway to the right, halting only once at the large sliding blast doors at the end. She put her right hand on the security pad on the wall near the doors, and after she removed her hand, the pad glowed green, displaying her name and a security code in light blue text. The doors opened with a hiss of released oxygen, and she stepped inside, spotting her ship a few meters away, sitting next to a strangely shaped, weirdly familiar one. "Not him… It can't be." She mumbled to herself, shaking her head as she approached her ship. "Impossible."

She pressed a near imperceptible button on her suit, close to her wrist, and the platform on the bottom of her ship lowered onto the metal floor of the bay, a dim golden light emanating from inside. Samus stepped onto the glowing yellow platform and it lifted her back into the cockpit of the ship, locking shut with a loud click behind her. She walked up to the front of the vessel, sitting down in the commanding chair, pressing a few buttons on either side of her on the gleaming panels. A few seconds later, with a flare of gold energy, Samus stood; clad in her all too familiar Varia suit, complete with the right-handed arm cannon attached.

"Better…" She said, shrugging and exiting the ship in the identical fashion. As the lift touched down on the docking bay floor, she stepped out, the ship locking itself up again automatically, and she left the room, returning the same way she came. Behind the defensive green highlighted visor, Samus saw the Federation soldiers and employees scampering about the halls as she moved toward the deck. She repeated the procedure with a second security monitor at the end of the main hallway leading away from the bridge, and the door slid open again into an entire entryway dedicated to the tighter security.

Samus stood in the core of the scanner, being scanned by security officers dressed in mundane grey suits for biohazards and other routine procedures. After the twenty minutes or so of standing in the scanner, she was cleared and sent through to the deck. On board near the central supercomputer terminals, the General stood, arms folded behind his back, a cross gaze on his face. Next to him stood a tall male with sandy blonde hair wearing a crimson and black mech suit similar to Samus' own, the helmet he held under his left arm slightly different with more angular communications arrays on either side near the black visor. The stranger turned his scarred face back toward her as she entered, grinning slyly at her as she froze.

"Ah, Samus, you decided to show." The General said, breaking the silence. He motioned to her to approach, and she reluctantly ascended the steep ramp to the computer terminal he stood at. "Well, I guess better late than never."

Samus stopped on the opposite side of the General that the stranger stood, cursing herself for making a somewhat transparent visor. "This is Aurel Fell, your partner for this assignment. He's a demolitions expert and has agreed to take out a large Metroid inhabited asteroid in the Outer Belt of the next system over. Uh… Zernoria."

Aurel held out his free hand toward her across the space in front of the General's chest, but she shied away from him, stepping backward once. Aurel grinned wider, dropping his hand back down to his side again. "Pleasure to meet you, Samus. I've heard about your many run-ins with the Metroids before. Don't worry about 'em this time."

_Yeah, I bet I can really count on you… Just like those ten years before…_ She growled in her mind, keeping completely silent inside her suit, just nodding once. Aurel shrugged, crossing his arms, his arm cannon now sitting on the floor next to him on its nose.

"All right, all right, none of that." The General said, glaring at Aurel before leaning in close to his ear. "I thought I told you not to piss her off."

"Not my fault." Aurel said, grinning wider. "_She's_ the one not warming up to _me_."

"You two," The General said, backing up from the two, frowning deeper. "Are going down to Trisult and check out a possible Metroid invasion situation that has sprung up near the capital, Amadol."

"Amadol?" Aurel said, now frowning as well. "You sure we'd be welcome down there? I mean, they're not exactly welcoming in the superior sense toward Federation anything or anyone."

"Yes, well…" The General muttered, shrugging. "We can't let any problem with those damned Metroids getting a hold of their own planet again."

The General turned to Samus. "Sorry," He said softly, smiling slightly toward her visor. "He's the only one we could get to back you up on short notice."

Samus glared at him through her visor, a white-hot gaze that burned into the General's forehead, and he felt it, wincing as he stepped back again. "You two will leave as soon as the two of you are ready. We're right above Amadol, so you'll have a straight shot there."

Aurel and Samus nodded at the same time, Aurel exiting first with a sly look toward her. "Samus!" The General called before she left the deck. "…Don't kill him, okay?"

Samus nodded again, walking out the door to the hallway, passing quickly by Aurel, leaning coolly against the wall near the door. "Hey…" Aurel whined as Samus kept walking. "Aren't you even going to say 'hi' after all these years?"

Samus ignored him, walking faster. He laughed lightly to himself as he jogged after her. "Samus!" He called as he slowed, quickly walking next to her. "Come on, talk to me…"

She shook her head as she opened the door to the ship bay and entered, walking toward her ship. Aurel shrugged, jogging to his own ship, the two entering simultaneously, Aurel glancing over at Samus before the two disappeared into their respective ships.

Planet Trisult, Amadol

Samus landed her ship on the only designated landing pad near Amadol, watching out the cockpit window at Aurel, who was forced to land on a cliff overlooking her own position. She smirked, thinking of other ways she would reap her vengeance from him as she watched him depart from his ship, standing ten or so feet up from the crown of her ship. He waved down at her opaque cockpit window, but she shook her head, slipping her helmet back on and exiting once more. She walked out off the lift and onto the firm, volcanic rock incline that led downward into a tunnel, darkening as it descended in toward the center of the planet at a slow slope.

"Well?" Aurel said, looking to her as he put on his helmet. "We going in or what?"

Samus nodded, walking at a moderate pace inside the tunnel, both Aurel and herself aiming at the darkness with their cannons. After a few minutes, the two finally started to notice the heat seeping into their suits from the planet's core. "Think we'll actually run into anything down here?" Aurel asked, mostly to himself, not expecting her to answer.

"Shut up, I'm trying to listen." She spat back quickly, keeping her eyes toward the dark shadows in front of her.

"Oh, so you _do_ talk." Aurel joked, just before he felt a hard smack on the side of his head by Samus' cannon.

"I said shut up."

"Well…" Aurel started to say, but was silenced by another strike on the face by the cannon.

A few minutes later, the heat started to become unbearable inside the suits, and Aurel turned to her again. "Hey, don't mean to bother you, but…" he said, taking off his helmet, revealing his red, sweaty face. "I think there's enough oxygen down here to keep us alive so that we can take off the helmets."

Samus shook her head, smacking him lightly on the arm with her cannon before pointing into the darkness with it, a faint green and blue glow coming from far into the tunnel. She motioned to him and he moaned quietly, putting his helmet back on. As they approached the opening at the other end of the tunnel, Aurel swore under his breath. "A nest."

Inside the huge chamber before them, the two could see miles of Metroid eggs dotting the floor in large clutches, the parents all floating around them protectively. Aurel lifted his cannon toward the nearest Metroid, a glowing blue one, but Samus put her hand on the barrel of the cannon, lowering it with a sudden jerk. "Get back to the ships." She said, softly, the Metroid hearing her and turning toward them. "Now!"

Aurel swore under his breath as he turned and sprinted the other way, Samus jogging behind him backward, shooting at the Metroids now gathering at the entrance of the chamber. Some got through, heading toward them, and she took a few of the approaching ones out first before directing her fire at the crowd in the tunnel. Suddenly, just before they were halfway out of the tunnel, a grotesque, monstrous head stuck out of the tunnel through the group of Metroids, its red eyes glaring at her as it roared.

Samus turned her back on it, sprinting up toward Aurel, who now stood at the very front entrance to the cavern, waving to her to hurry. Ridley screeched, launching itself out of the group, flying at a lightning fast pace toward her. She closed her eyes as she ran, hearing her own ragged, frightened breathing in her helmet, just before Ridley stuck its claws in her back, knocking her to the ground about fifty feet from Aurel. He cried out in shock and anger as Ridley roared again, the Metroids swarming on the two, the blue ones on Samus, and the green ones advancing on Aurel.

Aurel charged cannon first, firing at the Metroids relentlessly, yelling as he shot down one after another. He finally reached Samus a few seconds later, knocking Ridley off of her back with a hard shoulder to its chest. He fired a few shots at its head before using physical hits to beat the Metroids off of Samus, revealing many penetrating wounds in her back and shoulders, blood and a strange blue substance coating her armor.

"Don't worry, I gotcha." Aurel reassured her motionless body as he picked her up on his back, carrying her toward the entrance, firing behind him blindly as he ran. After he rashly cursed at himself a few times, he reached the surface, turning around and sending a missile toward the top of the cave, sending tons of rock and debris crashing onto the forthcoming Metroids and Ridley, cutting off the chase.

Aurel rushed over to Samus' ship, setting her down on her feet, holding her in his free arm as the lift carried them up into the vessel. He helped her over to the cockpit and set her gently down in the chair before turning to the controls. "I hope I still remember how to work this thing…" He muttered, pressing buttons until the engines started up and the ship took off back toward the _Freedom_.

Samus opened her achy eyes slowly, met with a blinding white light, and she was forced to shut them again, blinking a few times before attempting again. She looked around under her visor, somewhat surprised that her helmet hadn't been removed. Then she wondered if she'd been captured, and she moved to sit up, but was met with excruciating pain emanating from her back and shoulders. She groaned, lying back down, feeling a gentle hand on her shoulder, helping her ease back down onto the bed.

"Hey, sunshine." She heard a man's voice say just next to her, and she moved her head as far as she dared before she started to feel the minute twinges of pain again. Aurel stood over her, waving at her visor. She glared at him, batting away his hand from her right shoulder with her left with a pained wince. "Okay, okay… He said, putting his hands up defensively.

"Where are we?" Samus demanded, putting her hand on her stomach, and felt her mech suit still covering her.

"The _Freedom_." Aurel said, glancing to his right. "We had to pull back before the job was done. For a few moments, I was pretty sure you weren't going to make it."

Samus rolled her eyes, forcing herself to lift her head up and look toward where Aurel was. Inside the open doorway was the General, hands clasped behind his back as he walked in. "So, she's still alive."

"Yeah." Aurel said, nodding toward him. The General returned the gesture as he stopped next to Samus' left shoulder, opposite Aurel.

"Would you mind if we had a few moments? Alone?" The General asked, his gaze toward Aurel hardening.

Aurel glanced down at Samus, who met his eyes, and he patted her on the shoulder, glancing toward the General as he exited the room. Samus set her head back down after the door closed after him, and she looked toward the General.

"How long have I been out?" She asked, looking to him hopefully.

"Four days." He replied, smiling. "But don't worry. We took care of the nest."

"Took care of it?"

"Blew it sky high."

"Oh." Samus said, shrugging. "I guess that's taken care of then."

The General nodded. "Now… Just… Focus on getting better. You got hit a few times before Aurel was able to get you out of there."

"What I should be focusing on is getting out of this bed." Samus snapped, sitting up, using both hands to push herself up against the bed.

"Slow down! What's the rush?" The General laughed, but she just glared at him, swinging her legs over the side of the bed opposite of him. "I'll just be leaving then…"

"Yeah… You do that…" Samus growled, the door sliding open again, and he exited, only to be replaced by Aurel.

"Hey, you sure you should be up?" He asked, putting a hand on each of her shoulders.

"Yeah, as long as you're not in the same room." She spat, knocking his hands away from her again.

"Come on, you really still sore about the whole… thing?"

"Of course I am!" She yelled, pushing him away. "Leaving the night after… And without saying a word to me!"

"I said I was sorry in my letter!" He said calmly, looking at her with disbelief.

"Yeah, I know, but still, you could have been a little more sensitive to _my_ feelings!"

Aurel's shoulders slumped, and he looked away from her. "I… I'm sorry…"

"Don't give me this crap." She said, standing. "I'm over it. And you should be too." Samus walked shakily past him, toward the open hallway door.

As she was halfway down the hallway, Aurel ran after her. "Wait!" He yelled, stopping next to her as she turned around, both ends of the hallway closed. He put his hands on her shoulders at the base of her neck, and gently held her with her back against the wall. He slowly put his hands on either side of her helmet, and she hurriedly reached up with her hands over his, stopping his movement.

"What're you doing?" She whispered, her grip on his hands tightening.

"Hopefully… Righting a few wrongs." He replied softly, both pairs of hands helping to remove her helmet. Slowly, her hair drifted out of it, her long, blonde ponytail sliding down against her back. Aurel took her helmet in his hands, looking down at her as her arms returned to her sides, her eyes refusing to meet his gaze.

Aurel smiled, resting the helmet between his lowered left arm and his side, and took her chin between his thumb and first finger, smoothly lifted her head toward his, their eyes finally meeting. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, her breaths nervous, rapid and short. He moved slowly toward her, their chests up against each other, their faces growing increasingly closer together.

Samus kept her eyes on his, unable to move, her back against the wall, her feet unable to listen to her mind's desperate cry to run. Aurel grinned wider as he saw her almost fearful eyes, their faces merely centimeters apart, either one feeling the other's breath on their cheeks. "What's the matter?" He asked her in a soft whisper. "I kept hearing rumors about the _fearless_ bounty hunter Samus Aran… But I guess they were all false."

She froze as their lips met, her knees and hands trembling in unison as he slipped an arm around her waist, holding her closer to him. _What's he __**doing**__? This doesn't make any sense… __**He**__ left __**me**__… Alone… Without saying __**anything**__… Anything…_ Aurel smiled against her, and a handful of heartbeats later, she finally eased into his embrace, gradually wrapping her arms around his neck, giving in to her reawakened emotions, kept hidden under her rough exterior for years. He pulled away a minute or so later, the two holding their positions, too shocked by the other's behavior to move. Their eyes met once again, neither gaze wavering, and Aurel smiled a breath later, looking down a bit toward her cheek. "You're trembling."

"Am not." Samus replied softly, frowning a little.

"I can feel your hands behind my head."

Samus looked away from him, releasing his neck and stepping away toward her left, her back to him. She rubbed her hands together, the mech suit between them, somewhat easing the uncontrollable quaking. "I… have to go."

"No." Aurel said, taking a step toward her. "No… you don't. You're _not_ going to disappear again."

"I _didn't_ disappear the last time. _You_ did."

Aurel stopped, speechless, feet from her. He took her helmet in his hands, looking to the visor. "I can't stay here any longer." She mumbled, clenching her fists at her sides, hurrying out the door and toward her temporary home aboard the _Freedom_. He watched as she disappeared behind the sliding hallway door, and sighed, slouching with disappointment as he, too, exited the hallway through the same door.

Samus froze in the small room just beyond the door as it slid silently shut and locked with a small, whirring click. She leaned back with her back against the door, and she sighed, closing her eyes and tilting her head up toward the ceiling. "Why do I _always_ let him get to me?" She whispered harshly to herself. "I can't take this!"

She put her hands up toward her head, meaning to take off her helmet, but was dismayed when her hands struck her bare face. "He still has my helmet?!" She mumbled in distress, cursing herself rashly in her mind as she sat down on the bed, her face in her hands, wondering how to approach Aurel again after their uncomfortable encounter minutes before.

Aurel sighed with exasperation as he finally found Samus' room's door, her helmet in his left hand. He put on a brave face, staring the door down. _All right… Just pop in, give her the helmet, and turn around… and walk calmly out. No talking… Not a __**word**__…_ He thought to himself, and he took a deep breath, raising his hand to knock on the door.

Suddenly, a blast rocked the Freedom, sending Aurel crashing into the door, head first. He groaned, standing back up straight, and put his free hand on the door to steady himself. "What the…?" he whispered, just as another blast jolted him from the wall, the door sliding open, and he was flung in, crashing to the floor on top of Samus.

She fell with her back to the floor, Aurel landing on his chest above her. When the shaking stopped, he gave her an awkward, apologetic look. "Hey…" He said, lifting her helmet toward her. "You left this back there."

Samus glared at him, taking her helmet in a rush, shoving him roughly off of her, and quickly got to her feet, slipping the helmet over her head. _I'm never taking this off in front of him again!_

"You know what's going on?" Aurel asked, getting to his feet as well. "I just came to return that, and the ship started shaking…"

She shrugged, heading out the door calmly as Federation employees and volunteers scattered about the ship, the red, flashing alarms sounding around the halls. Aurel followed her out, and together, Samus in the lead, the two headed toward the bridge, where she was sure the General was.

The two burst into the bridge a minute later, skidding to a stop at the horrible, awesome sight. The General, along with three other Federation volunteers were held in the clawed arms of some demonic creatures, their faces white with shocked expressions as the faces of the creatures were against their necks, needle-like teeth biting into their flesh, fresh blood running down the sides of the victim's necks. The creatures looked up toward Samus and Aurel as they stopped; their red eyes locked on the mech suits. The beasts clicked in their own primitive language, dropping their lifeless victims on the floor of the bridge, getting down on all fours with wickedly clawed feet clicking on the metallic panels. Samus aimed her cannon toward them, firing a few times, but the skinny, nimble creatures easily dodged the shots and sprung toward them.

Two tackled Aurel while Samus was hit with the last one. Aurel fell forward as they struck, catching them off guard, shooting one in the face, but the second one clamped onto his neck with its sharp teeth. Aurel cried out as he felt the venom start to seep into his blood stream, his vision started to fade.

Samus glanced over at him as he was attacked, but was too preoccupied with her own enemy to worry; for the moment. She beat back the creature off of her with her left arm, then shot a couple times, striking the creature in the head and chest, killing it instantly as it collapsed onto the floor.

"Aurel!" She yelled, rushing over to him, striking the creature in the side with her cannon, causing it to fly across the bridge and into the control panels to the ship, sparks flying from the computers. Samus dropped down to her knees beside him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Aurel? Aurel?!" She called to him, shaking him slightly.

"S… Samus…?" He gasped, looking up toward her, revealing the wound in his neck to her. She winced at it, seeing the veins around it turning a dark greenish purple.

"I'm right here." She managed to say, tears threatening to spring forth as she heard him gasp from behind her visor. "You're going to be okay…"

"I already… know…" Aurel said, grinning confidently toward her. She took his hand and looked around, the alarms starting to grow louder.

"**Condition Red. Repeat: Condition Red. Evacuate immediately. Losing altitude above Xenophor VI. Repeat: Federation Flagship Freedom losing altitude above stable planet Xenophor VI. All personnel evacuate immediately**."

Samus swore under her breath. "A Metroid controlled planet… Of course, just our luck!" She shouted over the emergency alarms, setting Aurel's hand over his neck wound and rushed over to the controls, flustered and trying desperately to keep the ship from crashing nose first into the rocky ground of Xenophor VI.

She punched buttons, read data, and pounded her fist against panels in frustration, attempting to land, but was impossible, parts of the front of the ship already disintegrating from the intense heat from the atmosphere. Aurel sat up, his limp hand against his neck, trying to stop the bleeding despite his numb limbs. "What's going on?!" He yelled over the commotion.

"The ship's going to crash and we're the only ones on board!" She bellowed back, slamming her cannon into the computers, denting it a bit.

"Getting angry isn't gong to help, Samus!"

Samus rolled her eyes, sitting in the main cockpit of the ship, looking out of the huge front porthole in front of her at the rapidly approaching planet before them. She grasped the controls and pulled back, trying to level the ship to a more horizontal advance, starting to feel the heat building in the ship from the atmosphere. Aurel stood and shakily ran up to the cockpit, tugging at her arm with his free one. "Samus, c'mon! We need to get to the back of the ship!"

"If I don't land this thing right, we'll both be killed!" She snapped back, glancing once toward him hopefully before looking back toward the planet, the ground now getting more detailed as they came closer.

"I'm giving you a few more seconds, and then we're leaving!" Aurel said, keeping a firm grip on her right arm, just below the shoulder, ready to pull her away with all his remaining strength if necessary.

A few moments later, the ship was dangerously close to the surface of the planet, the _Freedom_ almost parallel with the flat rocky plain, Aurel shook his head rashly, pulling Samus out of the seat, wincing as his neck strained with his wound still partially open. Samus ran up the slope of the ship with Aurel, their hands clasped together as they helped each other. "After… this is… over, we're… splitting up… once and for all!" Samus gasped as the two struggled up the ship, finally reaching the back of the ship, near the engines. Aurel stuck his arm cannon into a crevasse in the wall near the engines, and Samus blasted a hole in the floor a little smaller than her own, sticking it in to hold herself and Aurel in place.

He looked down at her, and she could barely see his wide, nervous eyes behind his dark visor as they met hers. Moments later, the ship started to shudder, and it was rocked back and forth violently, the lights going out as the ship sunk into the rock of the planet…

Aurel moaned as he slowly woke, his eyes fluttered open. "Ugh… Samus?" He mumbled, sitting up, his arm still stuck in the wall. It was then he noticed that the ship had turned upside down in the crash. "Oh crap…"

He clenched his free hand, and swore under his breath as he didn't feel her hand. "Samus!" He called, starting to panic, looking around his feet and above his head, not sure where she was. He finally saw her directly above him, dangling from the ceiling limply, her head slumped forward. Aurel rushed to help her, pulling his cannon forcibly from the wall, using his own grappling hook on his left hand to climb up the side of the ship toward Samus.

Aurel wrapped an arm around her waist, using his cannon to blast the metal around her arm to release it, and she fell suddenly into his arms, the broken metal from her shattered cannon draping loosely from wires around her unusually bent right arm. As the two were lowered slowly down toward the floor of the ship, Aurel gently shook her in his arms. "Samus?"

Her head fell lazily against his shoulder, and he finally got a good look at her closed eyes, a small stream of blood running down from beyond her cracked visor, across her left eye and down her cheek. He cursed under his breath, exhaling sharply as the two landed on the floor, Samus falling against him. "We definitely need help this time."

Aurel froze as he heard the crackling of the radio a few feet from him on the side of the wall, a scattered voice coming from it. He hurriedly but gently set Samus down on her back near the wall and picked up the transmitter. "Hello? Hello!"

"RMS… do… read…?" The voice managed, but was cut off with a hiss of static.

"Yeah, Aurel Fell here!" Aurel yelled into the transmitter, but no response came. "Hello? Hello, we need help down here!"

No response. Aurel slammed the transmitter back down onto the wall and cursed under his breath rashly, kneeling down next to Samus. "This sucks…"

"No kidding…" Samus moaned, struggling to move. She whimpered in pain as she made it halfway to a sitting position, but Aurel caught her and held her behind her back with one arm.

"Take it easy!" He said rashly with a grin, easing her back down onto the floor. "Your cannon is almost completely gone and I don't like how your arm's bent now after that crash."

"Yeah, well, it hurts a lot, if that interesting speck of information helps…" She growled, finally relaxing somewhat.

"I figured that much." Aurel said, taking off his helmet and removed his cannon from his mech suit, setting it on the ground near him. "It's really hot, yeah?" He said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

Samus shrugged, wincing at the motion. "Here, let me help." Aurel said, holding her neck with one hand, and using the other to remove her helmet. He winced internally at the bruised cut on her forehead, just before her hairline, and saw the fresh blood run down her head toward her ear.

"Aurel?" Samus said, looking up to him as he stood, starting to take off his mech suit, the heat of the planet outside too much to bear with it on.

"Yeah?" He replied as he dropped the torso and arm sections of the suit onto the floor, revealing his heavily built body underneath, covered by a white, sweaty, sleeveless shirt.

"I…" Samus started to say, but was stunned by how much he had changed over the years since they had separated. He had been such a gangly boy growing up. _But now_… "Thanks."

Aurel smiled down at her, taking off the lower portions of his mech suit and dropping them onto the ground near her feet, showing the camouflage shorts and old boots that had been beneath. "No problem."

She smiled back, despite the burning pain from her shattered arm. "Hey, you wanna help me out of this?" She asked, looking down at her own bulky mech suit.

"Uh… sure." Aurel said, trying not to sound perverted. Samus gave him a suspicious look, but shook it off as he started with the bulky shoulder and arm pieces and moved down from there. In minutes, she had stripped down to the short sleeved black shirt and black shorts that she usually wore underneath. He carefully pulled the broken parts of her cannon from her right arm, trying not to agitate her twisted limb. "There, better?"

"A little." Samus said, using her free left arm to hold her right one to her chest as she sat up slowly, with Aurel's help, and winced as she felt the broken fragments of bone rubbing together. "Where are we again?"

"Xenophor VI." Aurel replied, looking toward the crushed front section of the ship. "I'll go take a look around outside."

"You're not going anywhere alone." Samus said, looking up at him, grabbing his collar with her good hand. "And I'm not either. We need to stick together until someone finds us."

Aurel looked away from her, toward the front again and then back to her. "All right." He answered, picking her up with an arm around her back and the other arm under her knees. He started toward the front, seeing a bright orange light coming from what used to be the remainder of the bridge.

"I can walk, you know."

"I know." Aurel said with a smile. "I just don't want you to strain yourself. You've been through enough already."

Samus frowned angrily, crossing her arms. "So have you."

"_I'm_ not the one with broken bones here."

She punched him weakly in the chest with her good hand, and he laughed amusedly. "Oh, shut up!" She snapped at him as they exited the ship, stepping outside.

The two froze as they saw their surroundings: miles and miles of nothing but rocky plains, even on the horizon. The three suns above them scorched their bare skin, the sweat on their foreheads already appearing, even though it had only been seconds. "This isn't good…"

Samus looked at Aurel. "You're going to have to put me down. You know, if you want us to live, anyway."

Aurel sighed. "Fine… Ruin my few moments of glory…" He said as he let her down gently to her feet. She nodded politely at him once before socking him in the stomach with her good hand. "What was that for?!" he gasped, doubling over.

"Pervert…" She mumbled, turning toward the desert before them. "All right, well, if I remember correctly, this desert we made a bull's eye in, is perfectly circular, and only about five miles across. So, it's probably about two and a half miles to the end in any direction. We'd better get moving if we're going to make it before nightfall."

"What's nightfall? Surely there can't be anything that lives out here?"

"No, and that's because it gets so cold that anything with a pulse would freeze to death out here within half an hour of the sun going down."

"That's not good…"

Later, they stood, gasping in the middle of the desert, nothing around them but the flat, rocky plain. Even the ship they had crash landed in had sunk below the darkening horizon hours before. Aurel fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard, sweat running down his face and soaking his shirt around his underarms and collar. "I… I thought you said… this desert was only a couple miles… across!" He gasped, looking up at her with teary eyes, the blinding light from the two suns left shining right into his eyes.

Samus dragged her feet tiredly in silence; shoulders slumped, carrying her broken arm with her good one, still moving on a few feet from Aurel. Finally, a few seconds later, she collapsed onto her knees, and then fainted, falling onto her side, unconscious. Aurel reached out to her with one arm, moving forward on all fours, but got about another few toward her before falling onto his side, opposite Samus, their backs to each other, and fell unconscious.

A huge, burly man with a red beard and bald head walked up beside the two just at sundown, when only one sun was left on the horizon. His breath appeared before his face as he bent down on one knee beside the man laying on the rocky surface, coughing slightly from the dust blowing into his mouth. The red-bearded man shook his head, picking Aurel up in one huge arm, tossing him onto his back on the hover-truck before turning to Samus.

"Hm… You again…" He growled, picking her up by the back of her neck, holding her face close to his as he examined her. "You're lucky I found you when I did, or you'd be dead in less than an hour." He looked to the hover-truck.

"Speaking of which…" He said, throwing her more gently into the back of the truck, on top of Aurel, and got into the front, driving off.

A few minutes later after driving through the freezing desert, the red bearded man stopped in front of a cavern with a shining metal door covering the front. He got out of the truck, rashly knocking on the door in a sort of code. The door slid open a few seconds later, and he entered the truck and drove inside, the door shutting after him.

He stopped the truck in the middle of the first room after the narrow tunnel, a huge domed area edged with black clad people in metal masks. The leader stepped forward, red paint streaked across his mask. The truck screeched to a stop in front of the leader, and the red bearded man got out, shaking the leader's hand. "Good to see you again, Ulark." The leader said, patting the red-bearded man on the shoulder with a smile behind his mask.

Ulark nodded. "You as well, Phardam." He said, glancing to the back of his truck where the shivering pair was. "I picked up a bit of trash a few miles east of here." He said, glancing to Phardam with a warning look.

Phardam returned the look with a suspicious one, and then walked to the back of the truck, glancing down to the inside. He snorted with disgust, picking up Samus by the collar of her shirt, bringing her close to him. He glared at her pale face before roughly tossing her into the center of the room, onto the floor. She groaned, having landed on her broken arm, and rolled over onto the other side. Aurel stirred just before being thrown down next to her.

"What in the world…?" He muttered, looking up at the masked people. "Hey… You guys have any water?" He said, smiling at them, delusional with dehydration.

Phardam walked up to Aurel, pulling him to his feet by one arm. Aurel moaned, his knees weak, barely able to stand by himself. Phardam took a flask from the back of his belt and shoved it in Aurel's face. "It's water." He explained, and Aurel took it graciously, draining it in moments.

Aurel glanced to Samus. "Samus…" He gasped, out of breath from chugging the water, and fell to his knees beside her. After checking her slow pulse, he looked back at Phardam. "Please… She needs help… We crashed here on the G.F.S. Freedom some hours ago and…"

Phardam looked to Ulark, and he nodded back, taking Aurel by the bicep and leading him away from Samus as two masked people standing in the back of the room walked quickly up to Samus, carrying her down a different hallway than Aurel.

"Hey…" Aurel growled, trying to pull away from the big man with little success. "Where are you taking me? Where's Samus?!"

"She's fine, now quit squirmin'!" Ulark snapped, jerking Aurel's arm to silence him. "She's being taken to the infirmary, and I'm takin' you to a room in the back for questioning. We trust her. Most of the time… You, on the other hand, are new around here."

"What?!" He yelled back, trying to tug away again. Ulark grabbed him instead by the back of the neck.

"If you don't have anythin' to hide, you don't have anythin' to worry about!" Ulark said with a small grin, stopping with Aurel in one hand in front of a stone wall. He placed his palm on the wall and a piece of the stone slid down to reveal a bare rock room and he shoved Aurel inside, shutting it after him.

Samus woke slowly, her eyes already adjusted to the darkness of the small room. The room was the same as the one Aurel was now locked in, only she was lying on top of an itchy cot in the corner of the space. An IV was stuck in her left arm, a bag of liquids hanging from a ceiling above her head, her broken right arm stuck in a cast and sling across her shoulder. She suddenly panicked, realizing Aurel's disappearance. "Aurel?" She yelled, standing from the cot, only to be forced back down by gravity, dizziness causing black spots in front of her eyes and a wave of queasiness spreading over her mind.

She sat down, putting her good hand against her hot forehead, closing her eyes as the door to the room swung open. "Well, well, well… Samus Aran… Come back to kill off the rest of us?" A rough male voice said from the doorway. He stepped inside, his arms crossed as he watched her.

Samus looked up at him, wincing at the sudden light with a small, sheepish smile. "Phardam… Happy to see me?"

"Not especially." He growled, stepping up to her. She looked down at her feet.

"They paid me to do it. Plus, it was the only way I and the rest of the tribe could survive, and you know it!"

"You murdered innocent people!" Phardam yelled, backhanding her across one cheek. "You slaughtered women and _children_, Samus!"

"I only did it to save the _rest_ of you!" Samus replied, distressed, with tears in her eyes, not from the pain of the hit, looking back at him. "You _all_ would have gotten infected too if I hadn't done anything!"

"Your _great_ Federation had a cure." Phardam glared at her mercilessly.

"They tested it on some of the infected, but it only worked on the men! The women and children were too infected with it in their brains and bloodstreams too quickly for the cure to work!" Samus yelled, her breath catching in her throat. The two stared each other down for a few almost silent seconds, the only sounds being his heavy breathing, and her hitched breaths.

"…Where's Aurel…?" She asked quietly after a few heartbeats.

Phardam sighed, the angry glare slowly disappearing from his face. "You can't go anywhere for a while anyway. It's only been a few hours since you came back to us, and you're still dehydrated."

Samus stood, swaying slightly, but kept her footing. "I'm fine." She mumbled, clenching her fists.

"Sit down." Phardam said harshly, taking out a long knife from under the many folds of his shirt, wielding it threateningly. Samus gazed at it with slightly wider eyes, sitting down slowly.

"You don't need that out."

"Apparently I do." Phardam replied, the light from the doorway reflecting off the clean, wickedly curved blade. "Stay here for a while longer. I'll go check on your… Aurel."

Samus glared at his back as he left the room, the door sliding shut behind him.

Aurel sat in a steel chair in the middle of the room, his hands strapped behind his back and the back of the chair, his head bowed forward. He breathed sharply, a single bright light emanating from the ceiling directly above his head. "Why aren't you cooperating?" A deep voice growled from the back of the room toward him, and Aurel looked up, his right eye black and blue with a deep cut under it, blood running from it and the corner of his lips.

"I already told you… I didn't have… anything to do with that…"

"You and Samus Aran came to this planet on Federation orders over ten years ago, killed nearly all our women and children, half of the men, and left us in the middle of a growing desert. We have tapes, records, and very few personal accounts of the incident and you still claim that you didn't have any part in it."

Aurel sighed, putting his head down with a wince, revealing his bloodied teeth. The masked man behind him grabbed him by the hairs on the back of his neck, wrenching his head back, his face up to the light. "I'm tired of asking you this, and this will be the last time. Where is the cure for the mutations?"

Aurel moaned, glaring at the man with his one good eye, the other too swollen to open. "I'm not… technically in the… Federation…" He growled, and the man pulled back more, striking him in the face with his other fist. Aurel's head jerked to the other side, and he gasped for a few seconds, spitting out a little blood.

"Where's the cure!!"

"I don't know… Anything about any cures…" Aurel breathed, wincing again as the man let go of his hair. The masked man walked in front of him, stood with his hands behind his back for a few seconds, and then kicked the chair over onto its side, Aurel still strapped down on it. He grunted loudly as he hit the floor on his face and left arm, the masked man moved in for another kick to Aurel's chest…

Samus stood a couple hours after Phardam's departure, grasping the IV in her arm by the needle, and pulled it out quickly with a small grimace. She tossed the tube to the side, letting the contents drip steadily onto the floor near the cot, and she ran to the far wall where the door had appeared, and looked over the rock, searching for a way out. She looked at her palm, sighing with closed eyes for a second before slamming her open hand onto the wall. She felt a tingling sensation under her fingertips, then her palm, and a second later, a slab of the wall slid to the side, opening up into the hallway.

She stepped out into the hall, looking either way, checking for masked soldiers, and, not spotting any in either direction, Samus headed to her right. She looked along the walls, picking out minute features in the stone, and finally found one that was labeled with several crudely shaped runes, and placed her hand under the markings.

The door slid open to the side, revealing to her Aurel, on the floor on his side in the chair, bleeding from the nose and gaping mouth, the masked man standing over him as he gasped for breath. "Get away from him!" Samus yelled, running into the room, shoving the man aside as she kneeled down to Aurel.

She struggled to set the chair back up with Aurel still tied up against it, and winced internally and visibly as she saw his face. He lifted his head weakly toward her, slowly smiling as he recognized her face. "Hey… 'Bout time you got here…" He said, his voice dry, and he bent over, coughing up small amounts of blood onto his lap.

Samus glared dangerously at the masked man and he hurried out the door, the stone sliding shut again after his leaving, and she turned her attention back to Aurel. "You okay?" She asked, feeling the question was meaningless because of the way he looked. She wiped the traces of blood from his face with one hand as he smiled at her again.

"Been better, I'll admit…" He said, slipping his arms out of the loosened ropes, pulling them gently over his head and off the chair with Samus' help. Aurel started to stand up out of the chair laboriously and gradually, but was tenderly forced back down with a soft hand on his shoulder.

"Not good enough to stand. Not yet, anyway." Samus said with a smile. She looked over his face, frowning sadly as she saw his bruised eye and scratched face, and wiped a fresh stream of blood from his cheek. "Sorry I'm late."

Aurel shook his head slightly, taking her hand from his face, holding it in both of his own on his lap, running his thumbs over her knuckles, and he looked up into her eyes. "Don't worry about it." He said softly, smiling down at her. She glanced down at their intertwined hands before moving her gaze so that their eyes met, tears in her eyes at the sight of his condition, her bottom lip barely trembling.

He squeezed her hand lightly, reassuringly, and she burst into silent tears, resting her head on his knee. He sighed, his smile fading to a sad frown, and he ran his hand through her hair, massaging the nape of her neck as she settled against his leg. "Samus…"

The door slid open behind her, revealing Phardam, wielding a large sword, three feet long with a black blade, tapping the flat part of the blade against his right calf. Samus sat up suddenly, her breath short and rushed as she felt his eyes on her back. She turned slowly toward him, eyes narrowed, trying not to show her fear as she looked at Phardam's mask. He glared darkly at her and she returned the steely gaze with her own.

"What're you doing?" He growled, looking from her to Aurel and back.

"I…" She started to say, getting to her feet, her knees shaking. Phardam walked up to her, a whole head taller than her, and rested the blade over his shoulders, the light from the ceiling reflecting off of the metal and into her face. She shielded her eyes by turning away, but he grabbed her neck with his free hand, forcing her to face him.

"Hey!" Aurel yelled, standing.

"No, Aurel!" Samus gasped, looking to Phardam. Aurel froze, glaring at Phardam, standing closer to Samus as the group seemed to stop breathing, the room becoming deathly silent. After a few moments, Phardam smiled.

"My only child…" He said, releasing Samus, sheathing the blade in the scabbard on his back, and hugged her tightly to him. She exhaled sharply, closing her eyes with a small smile as she returned the gesture willingly. "I'm sorry for the past few hours… It's been… different here without you."

Aurel sighed; his shoulders slumped with relief as Samus nodded. "I've missed you."

"And all of us have too." Phardam said, pulling away from her, but rested his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her with a warm smile. "It's been too long. Care to explain why you ran away?"

Samus looked away from him, keeping her gaze on a dark corner of the room, her back turned to Aurel. "Is there somewhere where we can talk?"

Phardam glanced over at Aurel, who was looking at him with suspicion. "Yeah. Just us?" He asked, and Samus nodded. "Well, let me escort you both to someplace… less depressing."

He placed his hand on the wall and the door slid open, Phardam exiting the room first, then Samus, and Aurel trailed behind. They turned to the left and he led the two down the hall several hundred feet to a more lighted area. Phardam opened another door on the right side of the hall to reveal a comfy bedroom, complete with a large bed and dresser. "This is where you'll be staying for a while." Phardam explained, motioning to Aurel. "We'll be back in a while."

Aurel glanced to Samus, who nodded with a reassuring smile, and he entered the room, the door sliding shut after him. She sighed, and followed Phardam as he continued down the hallway, emotionless.

"Something's not right about this…" Aurel muttered, glancing to the wall where the doorway had been. He crossed his arms, pacing the length of the room, once in a while kicking the edge of the bed lightly with the side of his foot. He looked back at the wall again, thinking to himself, and walked slowly up to it.

He examined the wall carefully, looking for any sign of a palm identification plate hidden on the rock, but found none, and he sighed with frustration. Aurel paced around the room several times, thinking of different ways to escape, but since the wall appeared solid rock, he quickly gave up. He glanced back at the wall a few moments later, and looked at his own right palm, walking slowly up to the wall. He placed his hand slowly onto the rock, waiting for a reaction…

A split second later, a huge pulse of energy surged through the wall and up his arm, causing him to cry out as the shocks coursed visibly up his forearm and across his shoulders. He was forced from the wall by the pulse and was thrown into the air, slamming back down onto the floor, his arm smoking from the power in the wall.

Samus watched the now solid stone wall near her that Aurel had disappeared behind moments earlier. "There's no… _surprises_ in there, right?" She asked as she jogged to catch up to Phardam, who was already heading back down the hall.

"No, nothing in that one." He replied, grinning. "Don't worry about him. As long as he keeps away from the wall, he's fine…"

She eyed him carefully, but couldn't help but smile slightly as she remembered the many times her and her father had bonded back on her home planet. "So… Adamant still here?"

Phardam looked back at her over his shoulder and smiled. "Yeah, he is. However, he's in the psych ward."

Samus stopped in her tracks and Phardam laughed, keeping his pace. She shook her head and caught up to him easily. "That's not funny."

"No, I suppose it's not, eh?" He said, opening another slab of wall to reveal a white room, tile lining every inch of the walls. Samus glanced to him nervously, her adrenaline spiking.

"What is this?" She asked, just before her father took her left wrist, pulling her forward and inside the room, Samus stopping against the far wall. She turned to face him as the four lights, one in each of the upper corners of the room faded to a brilliant red, alarms going off in the hall and the room.

"You're _infected_." He spat, glaring at her as thick glass slid over the opening to the room. "You need to be confined until we figure out what to do with you and your… _partner_… We _will not_ have another epidemic like last time."

He walked away and she fell to her knees, slamming a fist on the floor. "What?! '_Another_ epidemic'?!" She yelled at his back. "No!" She growled under her breath, glancing up toward the glass as she felt a dull ache in her heart. "Aurel…"

He stood, rubbing his forehead, sweat running off onto his palm. "What the hell…?" He murmured, slowly regaining the feeling in his chest and limbs. Then he heard the sirens as the door opened to the room and a pair of men stepped in, wearing white contamination suits, completely covering their bodies as they approached him.

"Stay still, sir." One of them commanded, pulling out a miniature sensor stick from a pocket in the suit, waving it over Aurel as he stood still. It beeped a moment later as the man reached his feet and he grunted, clearly content. "Well, _you're_ not contaminated. I'd stay here if you know what's good for you."

"I can't stay here!" Aurel said, trying to get past them, but the two men pushed them back. "Get out of my way!!"

"Sorry, can't do that, sir." The other man growled, shoving him back a second time, harder than the first, with the sensor stick in the stomach.

"I said," Aurel snarled, pulling a tightly clenched fist back. "Get out of my way!!" He launched himself at the man who had jabbed him with the stick and socked him in the face, knocking him out instantly, despite the visor between his fist and the man's face. The second masked man put Aurel in a bear hug, dragging him back toward the wall, but Aurel elbowed him in the side, making him release his hold, and he rammed the man into the wall, forcing him into unconsciousness before racing out the door…

Samus stood as she saw several soldiers, each armed with long barreled rifles under one arm, running past the glass door of her 'cell', and she walked up cautiously to the glass, looking down the hall toward the rapidly disappearing group. "What the heck's going on…?" She murmured, backing up a couple steps from the glass, examining it carefully. She slowly raised a foot and rammed it into the middle of the glass, hoping to break it, but her boot didn't even scratch it, and she bent down in pain to her foot.

"Damn it!" She yelled, cursing her throbbing foot, before she felt the sensation crawl up her leg to her spine. She moaned quietly, clutching her foot tightly for a few moments, and then slowly released it, standing again. "Hey!" She yelled to another man running past the door in the same direction as the soldiers, but her cry fell on deaf ears.

Samus growled with frustration, pacing for a few seconds, and finally rested her forehead against the glass. "Step back." An automatic voice sounded from the doorway, and she backed up suddenly, startled.

"What the…?" She muttered, her heart rate jumping suddenly as she moved, her vision blurring for a second.

A small light appeared above the doorway, aiming at her, and she shielded her eyes as it moved down her face, scanning her body until it finally reached her feet and disappeared, the computer in the wall beeping and whirring. A few silent moments later, the computer pinged and Samus jumped back, startled a second time. "Scan shows: BPM at ninety-eight, blood pressure at one-forty over ninety, DNAX corruption at eighty-nine percent."

Samus felt her limbs' muscles and heart ache simultaneously at the report the computer had announced. "…DNAX corruption…?" She asked it unconsciously, and the computer responded a split second later.

"Defining DNAX corruption…

"Doubling of Deoxyribonucleic acid in all cells, modifying genes slightly, eventually expelling all copied DNA in dense, unidentifiable substance labeled DNAX. Entry incomplete, due to all subjects' deaths shortly after."

Samus felt her heart skip a few rapid beats, and she fell back against the wall, taking in the information. Sure, she had been infected with other diseases in the past, but not one that had a tag marked 'terminal illness'. Or at least there was a cure.

"A cure!" She whispered to herself, feeling that one last shred of hope in her overacting heart, and she looked up to the small lens above the doorway. "Computer, is there a cure for DNAX Corruption?" She asked anxiously.

The computer analyzed her question and pinged a second time. "Cure for DNAX Corruption: …None recorded. File incomplete."

The sudden news struck her like a brick to the chest, and she slunk to her knees, her hands shaking in her lap. "New scan… Now!" She demanded suddenly, angry, and stood defiantly, in denial of the condition the computer had diagnosed her with. The computer whirred and beeped several times before the scanning light appeared just a centimeter above her head.

"Processing… New biological scan commencing… Please stand stationary as scan is performed."

Samus rolled her eyes, but stayed completely still as the light rolled over her body and disappeared after the scan was inclusive.

"Scan complete. Processing…" The recorded male's voice echoed through the room, and the annoying ping sounded after a few whirs and clicks from the walls. "Scan shows: BPM at one-zero-nine, blood pressure at one-hundred ten over ninety, DNAX Corruption at ninety-eight percent."

Samus put her hands against the wall, the information too much for her to comprehend at one time, and she was amazed at how fast the DNAX had progressed through her body over the few minutes between scans. "This can't be happening…"

"Scans recorded and stored in hard drive, backed up in three physical copies on disk, and report sent to Galactic Federation HQ on Hyperion."

"_SHUT UP_!! I _DON'T_ CARE!!" Samus screamed in frustration, her eyes wide and bloodshot. She put a hand over her heart just after the words left her lips, and she winced, feeling a strange heat flowing through her veins, starting at her left shoulder and moving toward her fingertips and toes.

"No… Please…" She gasped, her breathing hitched and rushed as she slumped down against the wall, shaking jerkily, her muscles painfully tense. "Not now…"

Aurel fought against a pair of guards outside his cell before throwing their unconscious bodies in the room and snuck out, ducking into other open rooms on the way back down the hallway as other guards passed, heavily armed. "Damn…" He muttered, trying to make himself invisible in the shadows of the room until there were no other people's presence in the hall except himself, and he got out of the room, running down the hall opposite the direction of his former cell.

He paused at several rooms before finally coming to Samus' cell, and he saw her against the wall, groaning with pain as blood leaked out the corner of her mouth, her eyes shut tight. He put his hands up on the glass as she opened one eye slightly, and he gasped. "Samus!!" He yelled, examining the doorway, feeling around for a switch or some way into the room with no success.

"Samus, no!!" He yelled, slamming his fists, enormously frustrated, into the glass…

Samus heard the footsteps just before the noise was swallowed up by her own rapid heartbeat in her ears, and she closed her eyes, the sharp pain surfacing from the burning heat under her skin. She curled up next to the wall, waiting for the pain to subside, and opened an eye slowly, looking at the glass as it was pounded upon with two fists repeatedly, and Samus instantly recognized Aurel's pained face and a random feeling of surprise echoed through the throbbing red ball of pain that was her mind at that moment at the tears running down his face.

_I haven't seen him cry since…_

A shadowy, humid, tropical forest surrounding and covering cliffs and mountains on a part of the planet's face, facing away from the sun, stood silent in the darkness as a single ship's engines cut off, the massive metal hull touching down on the long grass. The gentle rain from the atmosphere above landing on the lush undergrowth except where the ship had landed, and ran down the curved sides of the vessel, and a single, narrow ramp extended from the lower third of the hull, and rested down on the grass and brush.

A single figure of medium height stepped slowly down the ramp, a pistol in one hand, his slightly bulky mech suit clinking down the metal walkway, and he examined his surroundings, his black visor on his deep maroon helmet reflecting the thriving plant life around him. "Man, they expect to find anything besides plants and small animals here?" He muttered, cursing to himself as he walked away from the ship, into the trees and tall bushes.

A second figure rested in the trees near the ship, watching the new stranger carefully, her weapon trained on his back, her and the weapon camouflaged by the trees' leaves and branches. The armored man walked carefully through the forest, unknowingly being followed by the other, until he paused near a huge cave, carved into the side of a steep cliff, a few hundred yards from the ship. "Hey! Anybody here?!" He yelled, and the second figure attacked.

She tackled him from behind, striking him between the shoulder blades with her fist, and then rammed her arm cannon into his chest, knocking him onto his back. He grunted as the back of his head hit the stiff ground and she stepped on his neck as he threw his hands up. "Okay, okay! You got me!" He gasped, dropping the pistol, his hands open in surrender.

The woman, dressed in a customized mech suit, aimed her ferocious weapon at his face as she moved her foot down to his chest, but kept steady pressure on him so he wouldn't get up. "Okura daturni!" She yelled, jabbing him in the cheek with her cannon lightly, and he shook his head, reaching up slowly to remove his helmet, revealing a young, unscarred face with short, military cut hair.

"Hey, hey… Settle down, 'kay?" He said with a grin, trying to keep his nervousness hidden. "My name is Aurel Fell, and I come in _peace_." He separated each word and spoke slowly, trying to communicate with the stranger.

She cocked her head to the side, removing her helmet slowly with her free hand, her shoulder-length blonde hair drifting out onto her armor, her piercing blue eyes staring right into his green ones. "Aurel…?" She muttered, her curious gaze examining his body, more similar to her own than those of her foster family. "Fell?"

He nodded with a grin. "Yeah, my name, you know? And yours?"

She looked down at him suspiciously, letting up on his chest, and stepping away from him. "Samus… Samus Aran."

"Hey, Aurel, wake up!" He turned around, somewhat older now, and grinned as he turned around, tackled by the same girl a second later, her hair slightly longer, and the two fell tumbling down into the grass near the cool pond, complete with wide waterfall steadily pouring water into the pool. He landed under her, and she sat up on his chest, hands on his shoulders. They had left their armor behind at the Chozos' cavern city, and they were dressed only in shorts and short-sleeved shirts that Aurel had brought from his ship.

The two laughed, and Aurel grinned as he reached up under her arms and flipped her over onto her side, off of his chest. "Hey!" She managed to gasp between bouts of laughter when he started to tickle her ribs for a few seconds.

"Payback!" He laughed loudly, sitting upright just before she planted a foot in his chest and easily kicked him back into the water, Aurel disappearing under the surface. Samus sat up again, giggling lightly as she examined the rippling water for him. After a few seconds of the water stilling to a near flawless mirror, she began to worry, and she got to her feet, wading quickly into the water.

"Aurel?!" She shouted, feeling through the water, only her hands brushing against underwater growth and rocks. "Aurel!!"

She gasped as she felt a hand on her shoulder and she whipped around to see him just before he dunked her under the water, only to let her up right away. She spat out water and glared at him with the smallest trace of a smile. "Aurel, you jerk!"

The two sat on the edge of a tall cliff, overlooking the lush gorge below, the sun setting between two severed, jagged edges of a mountain, the red light of the sun illuminating only a section of the valley. Aurel had his arm around her shoulders, and her head rested on his collarbone, herself adorning a small smile. "I wish moments like this could last forever." She said softly, wrapping her arms around him, and he sighed.

"Yeah…" She saw a tear fall from his jaw onto his shirt just centimeters from her face and she sat up, looking at him. "You okay?"

He grinned slightly, wiping his face with his free hand. "Yeah… But I have to tell you something, Samus."

"What?" She asked, examining his face.

"I…" He started to say, but instead took his arm back from her and she in turn released him, giving him some space.

"Aurel…?"

"I… I have to leave." Aurel replied, looking to her with a sad smile. "I have to go back to the Federation."

"Federation?" She asked as he stood.

"Yeah, I've stayed a few years too long already. They're starting to think I'm dead." Aurel said, and she stood.

"You mean…"

"I can't take you with." Aurel said, looking down at his feet with a frown. "I'm sorry."

Samus froze as he started to walk off, and she rammed a fist into the rock wall near her as he disappeared. She cursed herself for disobeying the Chozo by attaching herself to someone emotionally, and she stalked off to her own cavern in the cliffs below.

She heard the ship's engines whine and then growl deafeningly through the caverns as the ship started up to take off, and she fought with herself and her emotions on whether or not to run to him to at least say good-bye. She swore loudly, paced a few times at the edge of the cave, but ended up sprinting off into the woods, still wearing Aurel's clothes he had brought from the ship that was now taking off in a huge cloud of evaporating water and fire.

"Aurel!!" She screamed, getting struck and scraped by the vegetation in various places, ducking branches of trees, and leaping over large rocks as she ran toward the ship taking off. "Wait!" She fell to her knees at the site where the ship was already fifty feet up off the ground, and she glared at it as a Chozo came up behind her to comfort her with a gentle hand on her shoulder, the two watching the ship disappear into space.

Samus was woken out of her flashback by a sharp pain in her back, and she fell over onto her side jerkily, her body shaking violently as her head struck the rock. Aurel pounded on the glass a few more times before pulling back, examining the doorway, and grabbed a guard running past him by the collar. "Open the damn door! Now!!" He yelled in the guard's face and he shook his head with fearful eyes.

"I c-can't! Phardam's orders!" He said quickly, glancing through the glass to Samus. Aurel slammed the guy against the glass.

"I said, _open it_!!"

"Anyone who goes in there now _will_ get infected, so what's the point?!" Samus glanced to them tiredly before feeling the blood run down her back and onto the floor, pooling quickly as the pain spread all across her spine and neck. She groaned, managing to get to her hands and knees.

"A-Aurel… Stay out…" She murmured, coughing fiercely until she vomited blood, and Aurel grit his teeth painfully hard. After she had finally stopped, the blood pooled at her knees, and she put one arm around her stomach.

"I don't care what happens! Open the door!!" Aurel shouted, ramming the young soldier against the glass.

"I can't do that anyway, _sir_!" He shouted, knocking Aurel back. "I don't have the override codes! Only Phardam does!"

A second later, Samus screamed hoarsely, a pitiful, dry groan that only just managed to pass through the glass to where Aurel and the soldier could hear, and she bent over, her forehead on the cleaner part of the floor. She barely heard Aurel shout her name over her heartbeat in her ears, and she felt a single, sharp sting give way to a warm sensation on her back before she blacked out, the unconsciousness finally dissolving any pain into a black, swirling abyss…

"Samus…" Aurel gasped as he saw a black, semi-liquid form leaked out of a new wound that went from the base of her neck to the small of her back, and her head went limp, hanging loosely forward and a few inches from the floor. The black liquid lifted itself up into a column, shaping itself, two limbs appearing from the main column, changing into human arms, the chest of the creature covered in a white shirt identical to the black one Samus was clothed in. Its head formed a second later, long, black hair sliding down its shoulders and back from its scalp, and its mouth opened with a soft sigh as the face was revealed, the black liquid falling off its eyes and cheeks, matching Samus' features.

It grinned, its red eyes opening as it placed its hands on Samus' shoulders, lifting itself from her body, its newly formed legs stepping out from her back wound, and stood shakily onto the rock floor. "Mm… That's nice."

"What the…?" Aurel muttered, staring at the second Samus curiously, almost horrified, and she cocked her head to the side to look at him.

"Hey there, handsome." She said with a seductive wink and he shook his head, turning to the soldier, who was staring at her with entranced eyes.

"Open the door." He said to the soldier, and shook him slightly. The soldier nodded dreamily with a small smile and put his hand to the doorway, the glass sliding open with a hiss. The clone's smile widened as she stood straight, walking to the door as Aurel pushed past her, quickly kneeling next to Samus, who lay motionless in a bloody pile. "Samus? Samus, open your eyes!"

"She's not getting up anytime soon." The black-haired Samus said with a grin, standing next to the entranced soldier, playing with his earlobe, an arm around his chest. "As in… Never again."

She snarled inhumanly, her incisor teeth now long fangs just before she buried them into the soldier's neck, the soldier gasping and screaming as he broke out of the trance. He felt his energy being sucked away by the clone, and his eyes rolled back into his head, dead moments later. The clone dropped his lifeless body and turned to Aurel, the fangs disappearing. "Your turn, gorgeous."

He looked at her, appalled, and gently turned Samus over onto her side. "Samus, c'mon!"

"Give it up, good-lookin', she's dead. _No_ human host _ever_ lives after the corruption's complete." The clone laughed, but froze as Samus stirred.

"Don't… count… on it…" She growled, opening her bloodshot eyes in a hard glare, attempting to sit up with Aurel's gentle help.

"That's impossible…" The clone muttered, staring with shock at Samus. "No one ever lives… _Ever_!" The clone yelled, holding out her open right hand toward her, the arm shifting its shape to resemble a wicked black arm cannon similar to that of Samus' Varia suit.

Aurel pulled out a pistol he had managed to swipe off of one of the guards he had knocked out in his cell and aimed it at the clone, carefully moving Samus behind him. "Get away from her, _now_." Aurel growled, his finger tightening on the trigger. The clone grinned.

"Go ahead. Try it."

Aurel hesitated for a few silent moments before firing at the clone's stomach, the blasts absorbed through the clone's body instantly. "Mm… Even better than bustin' out. And that's a great feelin'." She laughed lightly, the arm cannon clicking as it loaded itself automatically. "But this'll be even better than those two put together! Killing you both will be a great accomplishment. Two bounty hunters with one shot…"

"No!" Aurel yelled, shielding Samus with his arms outstretched, his chest overlapping hers and she winced as he backed up against her, herself being pinned between him and the wall. The clone laughed loudly, lowering her arm, the cannon shifting back into a normal arm.

"Maybe some other time, then. This heroic stuff makes me want to throw up." The clone laughed. "By the way, my name… Is Nax."

"Freeze!" A contamination soldier yelled behind her, several of them at the door aiming rifles at Nax's back. She rolled her eyes, turning back to them, walking toward them as they fired numerous shots at the clone. She passed them without a second glance and disappeared around the corner, running out of the maze of caves, the shots just giving her more energy.

Aurel sighed with relief, moving away slightly from Samus and turned back to her. "Hey, you okay?" He asked gently, putting an arm around her chest to hold her away from the wall to prevent her ruptured back from touching it. She laughed lightly, a series of hoarse gasps, and put a hand on his forearm.

"You honestly… have to ask… After everything …that's happened today…?" She muttered, groaning slightly as he examined her back and she clenched her hand tightly on his arm.

"Sorry, sorry…" He replied, smiling pitifully at her. "Well, at least it's over, right? And… you're still alive."

"Almost unfortunately…" Samus said, smiling as she carefully checked her motor functions by wiggling her toes and lifting her legs one at a time an inch off the ground. "At least everything's working…"

"Except the system around here." Aurel murmured in her ear, glancing back to the baffled soldiers behind him. Phardam cursed loudly and stammered into the room.

"Fell, just drop her, okay? She's dead." He said angrily, sighing at Samus, unaware of her breathing. Aurel smiled as Samus lifted her head, looking up at Phardam with a small smile.

"Not exactly, 'kay? I wish everyone'd just stop assuming I'm dead and/or dying." She said, and his eyes widened significantly.

"No way…" Phardam said with a smile. "Computer, did you get all of that?" He asked the top of the doorway.

"Yes, sir." The mechanical voice said, and Phardam laughed lightly with joy. "Computer, send the copies of observations from the past couple hours to Galactic Federation Headquarters."

Samus frowned, looking up at him. "Galactic… Federation HQ?"

"Yeah. We actually work for them, just to keep us alive."

"Samus, I think you'd better tone it down for a while." Aurel interrupted, looking to Phardam. "We need to get her out of here."

"Well, I would, but I've just got a report that my ship's been hotwired and stolen by your other half, Samus. But we have a few other spare ships. But since little Miss… Nax… is circling the area right above us, there's little chance of anyone making it past the atmosphere." Phardam said with a frown, and Samus leaned back against Aurel, thinking hard through her pain.

"What… What about… decoys?" She asked him a few moments later. "You still have those, don't you?"

"The decoys… Of course!" Phardam said, snapping his fingers in sudden remembrance. "You two would have to hide away in one, and be in the middle of a group of the other decoys, so that hopefully, she'd have to start from the inside and work her way in. We're all just lucky that Nax just left without infecting anyone else."

Samus looked down; shame in her eyes, and Aurel glanced toward her with some pity. "How soon can we get off the ground?" He asked Phardam, and he shrugged.

"Probably about half an hour at the least, an hour at the most." Phardam replied, walking over to the two and bent down next to them. "Let's get you two out of here."

Samus smiled at him warmly, and Phardam returned it, working together with Aurel to get her to her feet, one of her arms around either man's shoulders. "Nice to see you two actually getting along." Aurel said, and Samus frowned at him.

"You kind of ruined the moment." She said, smiling a second later, Aurel shaking his head as he and Phardam started walking her out of the bloody room. Aurel felt her hand on his shoulder tighten as she tried to walk along with them, her legs barely responding.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked worriedly, spotting the frustrated, pained look on her face.

"Oh yeah… I'm fine…" She growled through her grit teeth, and Aurel smiled, shaking his head as he looked over Samus' head to Phardam. He nodded back, and let go of Samus, Aurel sweeping his arm under her knees to pick her up into his arms. She gasped, her eyes wide as she clutched his shoulder and the chest of his shirt as he carefully held her in his arms and started walking, Phardam leading the way down the hall.

"You're a little jumpy, aren't you?" Aurel said with a laugh. Samus regained her bearings and glared up at him.

"Funny. You're _hilarious_." She muttered, her eyes drooping slightly as she looked away, resting her head against his chest. "A real… comedian…" She stifled a yawn.

"Don't worry, just rest. I'll get us out of here." Aurel whispered, and she nodded sleepily, closing her eyes. He smiled as Phardam led him through the long hall to a ship bay, a huge metal door the size of the width of the bay at one end of the room, numerous small ships being moved out by personnel from the cavern city. "Wow…"

Phardam grinned, motioning to Aurel to follow, and the two moved down a ramp to the ships. "There's about fifty we got running now, and you'll be going up in this one, right here." He said, pointing to one of the ships near the middle of the huge group. He looked down toward Samus with sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry for the way things have been."

Aurel looked down toward her as well, then back up to Phardam. "I'll destroy Nax. Don't worry about it."

Phardam nodded, patting him on the shoulder before leaving the bay, and Aurel examined the door to the decoy ship, looking for a switch. He put his palm on the side of the ship, his arm still under Samus' knees, and the door slid open noiselessly, Aurel grunting with approval. "All right…" He said, gently and carefully sliding Samus into the back of the small ship, himself getting into the pilot's seat. "Let's get this party started."

Phardam took the mic at the control tower just outside the hangar bay, pressing a button to relay his transmission into the speakers of the ship Aurel and Samus were tightly lodged inside. "Hey, you two read me in there?" He said, waiting a few seconds through a crackling speaker near his ear. "Hello? Aurel, you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to yell…" Aurel said with a laugh, and Phardam smiled.

"All right, you about ready to get out of here?"

"As ready as I'll ever be!" Aurel exclaimed, taking the controls in the ship. Phardam nodded, pressing the button to open the huge bay door, a rush of wind and sand blowing in to the hangar.

"Ten seconds till launch, so keep awake and ready. If that Nax sees that you're lagging behind the rest of the group, then she'll be able to pick you out easily. And Aurel?"

"Yeah?" Aurel said, confused at the gentle tone of Phardam's voice.

"Tell Samus… I'm sorry. For everything. All these years… But you don't know anything about that and I don't have time to tell you. Just tell her, okay? From her father." Aurel looked down at the controls, pity eating away at his insides and he glanced back to Samus, who was sleeping, somewhat fitfully.

"Absolutely. I'll tell her next time she's awake." Aurel said with a small smile before turning to the controls once more, his eyes out the dark window toward the ship ahead of him.

"Thanks…" Phardam said. "Now once you two come back… Kill that son of a gun floating around up there, all right?"

"I'll do it myself. No worries." Aurel replied, and Phardam laughed.

"Now, let's get this show on the road…" He said, pressing buttons on the control tower to activate the decoys around Aurel, and Aurel started his own ship, all the decoys hovering a few feet off the ground. "Ten… nine… eight…"

"This is it…" Aurel muttered, gripping the controls with his white-knuckled fists.

"Four… three… two… one… Launch!!" Phardam yelled, his voice echoing through the bay, and the ships flew out of the hangar, a huge mass of smaller dots.


End file.
